Belfast Waterfront welcomed ASME 2016 Annual Scientific Meeting for the first time this month. 450 national and international delegates travelled to Northern Ireland’s capital city, to enjoy a jam-packed programme of business and social activities during the 3-day event.

President of ASME (The Association for the Study of Medical Education), Dr John Jenkins CBE, who championed this event for Belfast, explains: “As the President of the association, I felt it was important that the members visit my home city to see the tremendous advances we have made both in medical education and as a city.”

A £29.5m investment from Belfast City Council, Tourism Northern Ireland and the European Regional Development Fund, through the European Sustainable Competitiveness Programme for Northern Ireland, has seen Belfast Waterfront double its event space to 7,000m2 and in turn the ability to bring a wider range of conferences to the city.

Thanks to the addition of two multipurpose halls together spanning over 2,500m2, 3 larger meeting rooms each accommodating up to 200 delegates, and a new 660m2 riverside reception area, Belfast Waterfront is seeing a welcome rise in the number of visiting national and international conferences.

Without the newly expanded conference centre ASME would not be celebrating ‘50 Years of Medical Education’ in Belfast, home to some of the world’s leading medical institutions.

Kathryn McAleese, Events Officer at ASME adds: “We never considered Belfast as a host city before, but during my first FAM visit to Belfast, I could see at first-hand how the city and centre fitted our event perfectly. Belfast is a great city, so easy to get around and really close to an airport, making it an accessible destination for our members. Moreover the opening of the city’s new conference facility meant our specific requirements could be accommodated and Belfast could be considered as a host destination.”

Not all venues have the capability to accommodate this prestigious event. ASME requires a wide range of breakout spaces to be in close proximity of each other for its parallel sessions and poster presentations, as well as clear span space to house exhibitors from all areas of medical education. With the addition of its new multipurpose halls and suite of 20 meeting rooms, Belfast Waterfront ticked all these boxes.

Jenny Ogg, Operations Manager at ASME commended the Belfast Waterfront team for being super-organised: “The staff are brilliant and so helpful, they get things done before they’re even asked. The new facility is fantastic and its large windows allow for plenty of natural light which is important when you have to spend days in a conference centre.”

Over the coming months Belfast Waterfront will welcome the World Credit Union Conference, the 67thAnnual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science, The British Orthopaedic Association Annual Congress and the BBC Good Food Show.